Drafting Support for War: Conscription and Mass Support for Warfare

How does a military’s recruitment policy—whether a country has a draft or conscript army—influence mass support for war? We investigate how military recruitment affects the way the American public evaluates whether a war is worth fighting. While some argue that conscription decreases support for war...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of politics Vol. 73; no. 2; pp. 524 - 534
Main Authors Horowitz, Michael C., Levendusky, Matthew S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.04.2011
University of Chicago Press
Subjects
Armed Forces
Armies
Children
Conflict
Conscription
Experiments
Lotteries
Politics
Recruitment
Self interest
Volunteer military
War
War casualties
War conflict
World wars
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Summary:How does a military’s recruitment policy—whether a country has a draft or conscript army—influence mass support for war? We investigate how military recruitment affects the way the American public evaluates whether a war is worth fighting. While some argue that conscription decreases support for war by making its costs more salient, others argue that it increases support by signaling the importance of the conflict. Existing evidence is inconclusive, with data limited to one particular conflict. Using an original survey experiment, we find strong support for the argument that conscription decreases mass support for war, a finding that replicates in several different settings. We also show that these findings are driven by concerns about self-interest, consistent with our theory. We conclude by discussing the relevance of these findings for debates about how domestic political conditions influence when states go to war.
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ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1017/S0022381611000119